The footsteps of a user on the Web are not erased with the digital wind, but are tracked by thousands of programs that draw many conclusions about their gender, age, habits or purchasing power.  These data flows from the websites you visit, providing a swelling spring of information that’s used for market research, target advertising or improved service offerings.

But how does the average consumer feel about leaving all those data crumbs lying around, so eagerly picked up by the business world?

A new study by researchers at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, which is part of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that majority of Americans do not prefer information collected at all about sites they visit.

Do-not-track

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As you might have noticed, these are very important data that are being left behind by users and in turn used by businesses for things like promotions.  One example is that personalized offer you see when signing into a website, or have delivered daily via email.  Most companies in the business of data justify the new trends with the promise of better ads for consumers.  But the majority of respondents did not find online advertisements useful, and over 90 percent feel the FTC’s proposal for “do not track” would save their personal data from being collected for the purposes of serving tailored advertisements.

Available in browsers such as Opera, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer 10, “do not track’ is an option for the user to automatically send an HTTP request to a compatible site saying he does not want to be traced or receive personalized advertising. Microsoft even goes one step further and will introduce “do-not-track” as the default setting in the upcoming Internet Explorer 10.

Do Not Track technology, however, continues to be a hot topic for the industry.  A poll of 1,203 adults demonstrated three different perspectives when they were asked “If a ‘do not track’ option were available to you when browsing the Internet, which of the following things would you most want it to do?”

Nearly 60 percent user said to “prevent Web sites from collecting information” about them and they are not sure that marketers are collecting information about their online behavior; 20 percent said do not track tool should allow them to prevent websites from serving up ads; and 14 percent respondents said they prefer regulation to prevent Web sites from tailoring advertisements based on their online usage behavior. Only six percent said they never heard of the Do Not Track initiative, or refused to answer.

Do you know who’s tracking? 

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Asked whether marketers must first obtain user’s permission before tracking multiple sites, one in five feel they should have the option not to allow advertisers to track people based on their shopping and browsing habits such, as when they browsed medical sites.

The defenders of Do Not Track and advertising hardly even agree on the real objective of the mechanism. For the former, the purpose of Do Not Track is to surf the Web without transfer of personal data, while for the latter, the system prevents the activation of their advertisements based on the browsing history, but allows the collection of other types of data.

Advertisers in denial?

Asked how often they find ads useful in terms of search and banner advertisements, more than 69 percent said either “hardly ever” or “never,” useful, while 30 percent said “often” or “sometimes.” Majority of respondents said they “never” or “hardly ever” clicked on an advertisement.

According to another study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, two thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers, but the online behavioral advertising industry continues to grow.

Data tracking from the consumer perspective

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Consumers would like marketers to serve them ads that are more relevant to their interest. Alternately, they would also like to see no ads at all. But it will only be possible when consumers are aware of the potential of big data – taking control of what data is provided to what marketers, when, where and why.

The estimated amount of digital information that is generated daily is about 2.5 quintillion bytes, according to a report from IBM. The market research industry is experiencing a shift towards the big data.

Indeed, advertisers are increasingly aware of the need to connect with so-called “consumers of information” through targeted engagement strategies. MetraTech CEO Scott Swartz also thinks that big data is the best way to gain knowledge and take proper actions, detailing the impact on the consumer.

A recent Digiday/Acxiom State of the Industry study found that, while most marketers want to understand the power of big data and engage their understanding with consumers, the majority haven’t yet tap user data effectively.

Perhaps consumers and businesses will meet somewhere in the middle some day, but there will be plenty of debates, privacy and security concerns to address along the way.  Just as social media gave consumers a voice, new data-management services like Singly will eventually give consumers power over their personal information.  Ultimately, brands and consumers may one day be able to get along better than we ever expected.